CRISPRi Frequently Asked Questions

Because knockdown detection requires waiting for natural decay of mRNAs and proteins after inhibition of transcription, it important to have stable expression of the CRISPRi components for at least 6 days. For this reason, lentivirus is the preferred choice.

From individual or combinations of single guides, to off-the-shelf and custom pools, up to whole genome resolution with the Sigma-Aldrich^® CRISPRi pooled library.

We recommend maintaining 300-500x coverage per guide throughout your screen and during NGS.

At least two guides per gene, and up to 10 guides for increased sensitivity. The Sigma-Aldrich^® CRISPRi libraries and pools provide 10 guides per gene.

Pooled QC is done by next generation sequencing for representation and distribution.

We recommend using an MOI of <0.7 for making helper cell lines and an MOI of <0.2 for pooled guide libraries, to ensure that no cell receives more than one guide RNA. This is very important for screens that will be analyzed by NGS.

How do you determine functional titer?

As different cell lines may take up virus at different rates, functional titer must be determined in your cells. Detailed protocols for determining functional titer based on colony forming assays and FACS analysis.

We have pre-designed negative and positive controls that will work in most cell lines; however, you may choose to design and use your own positive control guides that have been empirically validated.

A screen requiring NGS deconvolution should have no more than 1 guide per cell. Single-cell RNAseq with guide capture using 10x Genomics Feature Barcoding can detect multiple guides within each cell.

You have several options to validate your hits, most commonly: Clones with alternate technologies: RNAi, ORF, CRISPRa, 10x Genomics scRNAseq, qRT-PCR, immunocytochemistry, and protein function assays.